A summer hike at 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) is challenging given
the lack of oxygen, frigid temperatures, and exposure to elements.
Now imagine living year-round at high elevation without your
high-tech gear or modern foods. Scientists debate whether early
human populations could have done so, but a new UC Davis study
confirms that intrepid hunter-gatherers — women, men, and children
— called the Andean highlands home over 7,000 years ago. The team
of archaeologists and geochemists marshaled five lines of
scientific evidence to arrive at this conclusion. Perhaps most
striking, the isotope chemistry of ancient human bone reveals a
distinct signature of permanent high-elevation occupation. The
paper, published this week in June in the Royal Society Journal,
Open Science, is co-authored by Randall Haas, a University of
California, Davis, assistant professor. The study is available at
http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/6/170331
“High-elevation environments are challenging for human survival,
which is why the Andean and Tibetan highlands were among...